Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart (The State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart)

The Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart (SMNS, State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart) is one of two State museums in Baden-Württemberg, southern Germany. With its important natural history collections containing more than 11 mio specimens (fossils, minerals, plants, insects, molluscs, and vertebrates) the museum does possess an excellent foundation for biosystematic research. Due to its diverse international scientific contacts and relations, the natural history museum significantly contributes to the identity of the State Baden-Württemberg.

GFBio Data Center SMNS

The SMNS uses the inventory and information system IMDAS (Integrated Museum Documentation and Administration System) to manage its collections, as it was designated by the State Baden-Württemberg in 1999/2000 for all State collections. The information system SYSTAX was used as a data portal for GBIF, when the SMNS was one of the former six GBIF nodes. As BiNHum (Biodiversity Network of the Humboldt-Ring, which is coordinated by SMNS) and GFBio started, the Diversity Workbench was introduced at SMNS and will replace IMDAS in the near future. This is the core system for the GFBio Data Center SMNS.

Scientific data curation services (incl. taxonomic services)

The taxonomic expertise and interest is that of the SMNS (see http://www.naturkundemuseum-bw.de/science). Research at the SMNS is based on our scientific collections of fossils, plants, insects, molluscs and vertebrates. Taxonomic research, through which organisms are identified, described, named and classified, is a central element of our daily work. Our research is outlined by the following frame topics:

Biosystematics and taxonomy: Discovery, registration, description, and classification of organisms.

Research on evolution and phylogenetics: Origin, modification, and phylogeny of organisms.

(Palaeo-)biogeography and stratigraphy: Analysis of the patterns of distribution of organisms in space and time.

Ecology and ecosystem research: Analysis and comprehension of habitats and biocoenoses.

Biodiversity-Informatics: digital availability, integration and computational analysis of basic scientific data about the diversity of life.

Applied research: accumulation of basic knowledge for problem solving, support for the utilisation of scientific data, and implementation of results

The SMNS has a special interest in (meta-)data related to its taxonomic and other focussed research areas like the botanical field mapping of Baden-Württemberg and Germany but also in molecular data as those collected within the German Barcode of Life project.

Data domains

The SMNS has a strong interest in collection and observational data as well as in genomic research data.